Pokemon Go Is Old Hat; This Chinese Game Lets You Grab Real Money

A Pokemon Go-type game by Alibaba’s Alipay is giving players money for nothing, so its no wonder people in China are going crazy for this augmented reality based-smartphone game. They are actually getting money for playing a game.

Based on the Pokemon Go concept

Because of the ban on Google services that prevent Pokemon Go from working in China, most Chinese users have never had the chance to play this popular smartphone game. But now, they are getting an even better substitute.

This game brought to the country by Alipay – -China’s most popular payments app with about 450 million active users — allows players to collect virtual red packets containing real money. During the Lunar New Year and other occasions, the real red envelopes (called hongbao) containing cash are traditionally given. The game, which was launched as a feature within the app, shares the same premise as the location-based app Pokemon Go.

In addition, the game has nearby items that the user can grab and an AR mode that turns the camera of the user’s phone into a viewfinder for the treasure that they are hunting. The available money is shown as red envelopes. Every cash grab is accompanied by a user’s location, name and clue from the sender about where to find it.

A game that earns you some money

The news site Quartz even tested the game. The writer says that his Alipay app sent him a notification that told him that a packet from a colleague was nearby.

“As I got closer to the office, the app showed me an image of its specific location, partially concealed by a set of black bars,” the report noted.

To pocket the money, the player has to be in the right spot, and they cannot get away with swiping things as they ride on a bus or walk by as they do in Pokemon Go, reports techinasia. The cash grab is deposited into their Alipay account.

In the settings, players can specify whether they would like to receive and share packets from people they don’t know or only from existing contacts in the Alipay app. Users can give out a maximum of 200 yuan per packet. This amount can be split into 200 people at most, notes Quartz.

According to Quartz, Tencent is expected to release a similar game in January on QQ Messenger, a popular Chinese chat app.